“We owe the greatest debt to our veterans. We made them a promise: if you protect us, fight our wars, and keep us safe in our beds at night, we will take care of you when your time in uniform is done. We need to keep our promise. They kept theirs.”-Marc Deal, Executive Director for Veterans Resource Centers of America. There are 30 million veterans in the US, and over 1 million in Ohio alone. Our service men and women face many challenges as they reenter into civilian life.
As a way to thank them for their service, and show them gratitude Chapter members from our Olentangy High School Chapter, created thank you packages for veterans receiving care at the Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care Center. Packages included socks, personal care items, winter accessories, and hand written thank you notes. Students hosted a donation drive in the school to collect these items, and later over 30 students met to assemble the care packages and create the thank you notes. They also constructed a large thank you sign to gift to the center as a physical reminders to the veterans who go there each and every day. Our Chapter advisors and Chapter leaders later hand delivered the items to the center, and were able to personally thank some of the veterans receiving care.
Chapter Leader Nick reflected on the experience, saying ” When it came to finally passing out our care packages, my heart was deeply warmed by the gratuitous appreciation each and every veteran expressed for our care. I would go as far to say that this was a truly life changing event and one I hope to take part in more and more in the coming years.”
